How Society Works - Social Order by Self-Organization (Chapter 5 of Digital Society)
Digital Society, Forthcoming
21 Pages Posted: 23 Nov 2014
Date Written: November 22, 2014
Abstract
The invention of laws and regulations is celebrated as great success principle of societies and they are, of course, important. However, a major part of social order is based on self-organization, which builds on simple social mechanism. These mechanisms have evolved over historical times and are the basis of the success or failure of civilizations. Currently, many people oppose globalization, because traditional social mechanisms fail to create cooperation and social order under globalized conditions that are increasingly characterized by homogeneous or random interactions. However, I will show that there are other social mechanisms such as reputation systems, which will work in a globalized world, too.
Keywords: Self-organization, cooperation, globalization, tragedy of the commons, moral behavior, reputation systems, mechanism design, social information technologies
JEL Classification: A00
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation